DICE originally had even bigger plans for Battlefield 3’s iconic jet mission, but they had to be scaled back due to technical obstacles.
If you’ve played Battlefield 3, you’ll no doubt remember the thrilling jet mission, which, I’ll have you know, has an actual name. It’s called Going Hunting, it’s the fourth mission in the main campaign, and it puts you in the army boots of Lt. Jennifer “Wedge” Hawkins for a stunning airborne battle in the stormy skies of the Persian Gulf. It’s arguably the most memorable mission from Battlefield 3 and one of the series’ most celebrated gameplay sequences overall.
Things is, while you can use the jet’s shooty things to take down enemies, you don’t actually get to fly the plane, even though that was the original plan. In a tweet, Battlefield 3 lead designer David Goldfarb said technical limitations prevented DICE from implementing “free fly” in the mission.
“We did want to make this mission free fly initially, it just wouldn’t have been possible to make the assets and stay at quality, plus lots of player education debate,” he said. “We wound up going ‘fuck it just make an awesome cinematic jet experience’ but def wished freefly happened.”
We did want to make this mission free fly initially, it just wouldn’t have been possible to make the assets and stay at quality, plus lots of player education debate. We wound up going “fuck it just make an awesome cinematic jet experience” but def wished freefly happened. https://t.co/UKZlcyfXtbFebruary 10, 2025
Goldfarb ended up leaving DICE in 2012 shortly after Battlefield 3’s release. He was with Overkill for two years after that, where he directed Payday 2, and since 2014 he’s been creative director at The Outsiders, the folks behind the Doom-inspired rhythm game Metal: Hellsinger.
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